Command and Conquer dev: GLA was "pretty offensive"

"Now we'll probably just offend everybody"

The next incarnation of classic strategy franchise Command and Conquer will attempt to break away from its traditional Middle Eastern enemies, in an attempt to make the title more politically correct.

"This is actually a pretty big change for the game. Anyone who knows this series will know the Global Liberation Army," Tim Morten of developer Victory Games told Polygon.

"But at the studio we had a bad reaction from people saying it was pretty offensive to have Middle-Eastern characters as militants."

Previously the Global Liberation Army featured in the game has a very Middle Eastern look, and its operations within the game have spanned to locations such as Somalia, Kazakhstan and Russia.

In the future Victory promised the enemies will be lead by five more ethnically varied generals.

"Now we'll probably just offend everybody"

The game is due for release this year, and will combine the series' strategy game play with a free-to-play business model. It's the first title for EA studio Victory Games, which spent almost a year as BioWare Victory between 2011 and 2012.

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I can see where they're coming from, the people who say they're offended by it. On top of that, though, I would say that it's akin to many Hollywood films after Die Hard having an English character actor as a villain - something that, past a certain point, is just tired and cliched.

@Morville - Heh, yeah... I was thinking of True Lies and it's very kooky "Crimson Jihad" villains that offended some but didn't hurt that films boxoffice at all. Now, that would be seen as overkill (unless you're Fox, who got away with worse stereotyping on 24 for a few years afterwards)...

Well maybe some people do. But I really don't think this is the case here. It's not like the depiction of certain ethnic groups isn't a hot topic and mosques aren't being burned down with people in it.

There's very little that separates the message of the game with that of propaganda art. Of course it's a war game and an enemy is needed, but I guess that having spent a lot of time with some simple minded folks I have witnessed how many people actually feed into these stereotypes. One even mentioned how he was considering joining the BNP after 9/11 ... ... ...

But if you think outside of the box you can get a win win. How about the Allies are Iraqi and Sudanese armies trying to wipe out extremism with the help of the US, France and Britain. There, you've not painted brown people as the enemy, and then you can call out anyone who gets offended as you've no longer marginalised them.